About the concept of knowledge. Forms of the attitude of consciousness to its certainty. Consciousness, self-awareness, mind.

Any events in a person’s life are reflected in his consciousness during both active mental and subconscious activity. Even philosophers in Western Europe, since the times of Descartes and Locke, tried to understand the nature of consciousness and highlight its properties. As a rule, the greatest interest is generated by questions related to the existence of some physical processes that determine the existence of consciousness as an object of an individual’s mental activity. Consciousness is currently studied in psychology, neuropsychology and neurobiology. As a rule, this is associated both with the study of the possibility of treating conditions with impaired consciousness, and with its assessment in patients in a coma or under anesthesia.

Human consciousness

Human consciousness can be understood as:

• knowledge of oneself and the surrounding world, which is based on cognitive processes;
• the opposite of unconsciousness, that is, a state of activity;
• the process of understanding the influence of environmental factors on a person.

As a rule, the external world changes a person’s consciousness both directly through the senses and through the analysis of the individual’s subjective feelings. This is an integral part of the life process of any person. Also, we should separately highlight social consciousness, which is a reflection of the inner world of the individual in society.

Consciousness is translated from Latin as “conscius”, which literally stands for “co” - together and “scio” - to know. The first mention of consciousness dates back to the year 1500. Sometimes it was also interpreted as both “knowing about oneself” and “sharing knowledge with oneself about something.”

The origin of the modern concept of consciousness is often attributed to John Locke, thanks to his work published in 1690. Locke defines consciousness as “the perception of what is going on within a person.” This work had a significant impact on public opinion about consciousness in the 18th century.

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Sensory cognition occurs in three main forms: sensation, perception and representation.

Sensation is a reflection of individual properties of an object that arises when it acts on the sense organs: vision, hearing, smell, touch, taste of the subject. Vision reflects light waves, hearing reflects sound vibrations, smell and taste reflect chemical properties, and touch reflects the mechanical and thermal properties of an object.

All senses have their limits. But this is not so much a disadvantage as their advantage. If a person's eye recorded all the rays, and his ear caught all the sounds, then a person's life would be unbearable, and his knowledge of the world would be doubtful.

A single sensation is a fragment of a complex complex of general sensation of an object as a prerequisite for the perception of a source of primary information.

Perception is a holistic image of an object that directly affects the subject’s senses. But integrity is special. This image cannot be quantized into its components. In addition, the formation of this image is significantly influenced by the subject’s accumulated experience, his mental attitude, and psychological attitude. For example, an experienced investigator, when examining a crime scene, “reads” more information than his young colleague, although the latter may surpass the former in biological visual acuity.

Sensory perception is a concrete image of a single object from its external manifestation. In other words, perception is an image of the form of an object that keeps the secret of its content, its essence.

Perception as a direct sensory image prepares the representation.

Representation is that sensual, holistic image of an object that arises as a result of the indirect influence of the object on the sensory organs of the subject. Two factors take part in its formation: the experience of past perception and the subject’s ability to imagine.

In contrast to perception, the image of representation is less distinct, a number of details are missed in it, but it is more generalized. The main thing is that this image carries with it the opportunity for the subject to show his own measure of imagination and fantasy, to “complete” the image, making it more stable and familiar to himself. In this sense, representation is that visual and holistic image that is born by the power of imagination on the basis of past sensory experience.

The idea, transformed by the power of imagination, moves away from the specific visibility of the object, approaching its generalized characteristics. The idea reaches its highest forms of expression in the process of scientific and artistic development of existence. But the dignity of imagination is also fraught with a drawback, the essence of which lies in the “finishing” of the image, and therefore, the departure from its adequacy with the object of this image.

The image loses its resemblance to the object and is transformed into a sign that replaces the object.

The possible inversion of an image into a sign forces attention to the significant difference between the image and the sign. An image has a resemblance to an object; a sign has nothing in common with what it stands for. A sign has the conventional meaning of a sign, signal, symbol, formal designation.

The sensory level of cognition is not initially given. It has its own sociocultural conditioning.

A powerful factor in the development of the sensory level is the life activity of a person, the improvement of the skills of his hand, the specialization of language and the appearance of tools as an intermediary in the “subject-object” system. The socialization of man has led to the fact that his sensory perception has acquired a conscious and meaningful character. For example, an animal looks, but a person can see.

The subject, object and their information intermediary form the initial epistemological situation, form the image as a prerequisite and condition for the rational level of cognition.

B. Rational level of cognition

Sensory perception of an object and its representation as an image of an external form is not sufficient for cognition, because the general natural connections of the object are not grasped at the sensory level. This is the prerogative of thinking as rational knowledge.

Thanks to thinking, a transition is made from sensory knowledge of the external characteristics of a single object to rational (logical) knowledge of the internal, general characteristics of the certainty, conditionality and integrity of the object, and the study of the patterns of its development.

Thinking is a function of the brain that provides an abstract and generalized development of existence in the world at the level of revealing its essential aspects, properties, connections and relationships.

The main forms of thinking are concept, judgment and inference.

A concept is a conceivable reflection of an object in its general and essential characteristics. The concept is a rational reflection of reality, a form of concentrated knowledge.

The object in the concept is characterized in a general way. This generalization is achieved by means of abstraction, idealization, comparison, definition, etc.

In each concept, its content and volume are distinguished. The content of a concept is a set of essential features of an object reflected in the concept. The scope of a concept is a certain community of objects with related characteristics.

Thus, the scope of the concept “crime” includes a set consisting of various types of large and small individual crimes against persons and property. There is a certain connection between the content and scope of a concept. The greater the content of a concept, the smaller its volume. Thus, the concept of “crime” has one volume, and the concept of “crime against a person” has a smaller volume, because the content of the original concept has increased due to the clarification - “against a person”.

As experience accumulates, the content of concepts becomes richer, which indicates the historical conditioning of human concepts. But people don’t think in separate concepts.

Another form of thinking is judgment. A judgment, like a concept, is a reflection of the connections and relationships of a cognizable object with other objects, as well as their evaluation. To think at this level means to judge something specifically.

Judgment is a form of rational level of cognition in which, through the connection of concepts, something is affirmed or denied. Language is a means of communication between people. Logically, this statement of type "S" is "P". Ivanov is a judge. This judgment contains specific information about Ivanov. As a solution to a certain cognitive situation, judgment is an act of thought in the form of a logical operation.

If the connection of concepts contained in the judgment corresponds to reality, then the judgment is true. If it does not match, it is false.

Judgment has its own structure. It reflects in one form or another the relationship between the individual and the general. In the proposition: “Ivanov is a judge” - the individual (Ivanov) refers to the general (the judge).

Cognition is carried out in the process of transition from the individual to the general, with a return to the individual in order to establish (define) the particular. And the form of making this transition is judgment.

The third form of logical thinking is inference. It allows you to logically obtain new knowledge from initial knowledge.

Inference is a form of rational level of cognition that provides the opportunity to derive a judgment (conclusion) from judgments called “premises”.

The conclusion logically follows from the premises, but not at the request of the subject of knowledge, but in accordance with reality. For example, spherical bodies cast a disk-shaped shadow. During lunar eclipses, the Earth casts a disc-shaped shadow. Therefore, the Earth has the shape of a sphere.

Thanks to this form of rational knowledge, there is no need to obtain every judgment from sensory experience, or to turn to empirical facts. You just need to follow certain logical rules.

For a new judgment (conclusion) to be true, two conditions must be met. Firstly, the initial judgments (premises) must be true, and this truth must have sociocultural confirmation. Secondly, the form of inference must comply with the rules for connecting judgments (premises).

True conclusions are a tool for substantiating the subject's ideas. All his hypotheses and theories regarding the object of knowledge are essentially inferences.

Sensory and rational cognition together ensure the unity of human cognition. People formulate cognitive tasks, interpret its results at a rational level, and receive the necessary working information at a sensory level. Having penetrated levels of reality inaccessible to sensory knowledge, abstract thinking creates images - projects, which, after their objectification, increase the field of sensory experience.

Sensory level data is just material in which the subject receives information for subsequent processing, including methods of a non-reflective nature: categorization, factualization, hypothesis construction, its interpretation.

As for rational knowledge, it operates with concepts that have a universal character. And the logical rules of thinking are the same for all people and do not depend on the characteristics of individual perception. But even at the level of rational knowledge there are problems. And one of them is the separation of thought from the real object. The power of abstraction finds its opposite when the general loses its ontological rootedness and falls into the network of unfounded extrapolations.

At the level of rational cognition, there are possible logical, epistemological and psychological difficulties, especially when the object of cognition is the phenomenon of the meaning of life, happiness, love or another person. In considering these phenomena there is always a tendency to underestimate the object and overestimate the representation of the subject, richly flavored by his imagination. When a subject evaluates his behavior, he tends to explain it by objective circumstances. And vice versa, when he examines the behavior of others, he tends to explain it not by objective, but by the personal qualities of the person in question.

Somewhat apart from the sensory and rational levels of cognition stands intuition as the subject’s ability to directly and directly comprehend the truth.

Intuition is not something unreasonable or super-intelligent. This is a special type of thinking that preserves in a hidden form both the thinking process itself and its preparatory period.

The phenomenon of intuition was already considered in antiquity. Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Hegel, Feuerbach, Bergson, Freud and others left their thoughts on the issue of intuition. They all understood intuition subjectively, agreeing that its mechanism remains a mystery.

Intuition is enough to discern the truth, but it is not always enough to convince others and even oneself of this truth. This requires evidence and practice.

Thus, cognition is not a simple act of “photography”, copying reality, but appears as a complex multiphase process, where the relationship between the sensory and logical (rational) is significantly supplemented by subjective assumptions.

A sign is a material, sensory object (event, action or phenomenon), which acts in cognition as an indication, designation or representative of another object, event, action, subjective formation. Designed to acquire, store, transform and broadcast certain information (messages). 3. – intersubjective mediator, structure-mediator in social interactions and communication. A scientific discipline that studies the general principles underlying the structure of all 3., taking into account their use in message structures, as well as the specifics of various 3. systems and messages using different types of 3., is semiotics. From the definition of 3. follows its most important property: being some material object, 3. serves to designate something else. Because of this, understanding 3. is impossible without clarifying its meaning - objective (the object it denotes); semantic (image of the designated object); expressive (expressed through his feelings, etc.). 3. denotes a given object (the object designated by 3., the essence of its objective meaning is denotation) and expresses conjugate semantic and expressive meanings. 3. may have a certain meaning without the presence of the corresponding object. The meaning 3. can be minimized in the presence of subject meaning (proper names of natural languages), etc. The semantic meaning of 3. is what the user of this 3. understands by it.

The criterion for distinguishing true and untrue is considered to be such a mental or practical procedure that allows one to answer the question of the correspondence of knowledge, i.e. cognitive image, cognizable object. Thus, the problem of the criterion of truth comes down to the question of a connecting link that unites the subjective and objective, and serves as the basis for comparing reality and its reflection in human consciousness. This question is not new; in the history of philosophy there are three possible answers to it.

First: identifying a cognitive image with a material object, eliminating the difference between them. In this interpretation, the content of the subject’s consciousness is made completely dependent on the object: a cognitive image is an imprint in the human brain. This position is characteristic of mechanistic materialism of the 18th century. If consciousness is completely reducible to the concept of material matter, then there is no difference between them, and the question of the relationship between the content of knowledge and the object makes no sense: knowledge is simply a literal material imprint of one object in another.

Second: placing the cognizable object in the consciousness of the subject, the assertion that in cognition a person encounters only such objects that his consciousness constructs. This position is characteristic of the transcendental idealism of I. Kant. In this case, the gap between subject and object, and therefore, the cognitive image and the cognizable object also does not exist: the cognizable object is in consciousness [Kant I., 1994].

Third: the search for a connecting link between the subject and the object, combining the characteristics of both. This third element, which allows us to correlate knowledge about an object and the object of knowledge itself, is practice. Practice is defined as human object-sensory activity to transform material systems. It is she who is considered as the leading criterion of truth. If knowledge is true, then practical activity based on it will be successful. On the contrary, if practical activity is considered unsuccessful, then the knowledge underlying it is most likely false (www.philos.msu.ru/library/).

The criterion of practice, however, cannot always be used, since there is such knowledge that is not directly translatable into the material-sensory plane. For example, it is impossible to find a type of practice that would allow testing the theoretical ideas of higher mathematics or quantum physics, judgments about the past in historical science, or philosophical knowledge. To confirm or refute this kind of knowledge, other criteria of truth are used: logical consistency, coherence (systematicity), heuristics, beauty, simplicity. These criteria are described in non-classical concepts of truth.

The criterion of consistency assumes that true knowledge must be expressed in logically consistent forms. A logical contradiction indicates either a fallacy or a lie.

Coherence (systematicity) assumes that new knowledge should be well consistent with those results that are already assessed as true. Such fundamental knowledge is represented by the philosophical principles of causality, unity of the world, conservation of energy, self-organization of the world, etc. The coherence criterion allows one to choose between two theories that cannot be tested in practice and both are logically consistent. Of two theories, the one that is more compatible with fundamental knowledge is recognized as true.

The heuristic criterion comes into force when the above methods of distinguishing true knowledge from false knowledge do not allow making a decision. Heuristic characterizes the potential of knowledge to grow. Of the two theories, the more heuristic, and therefore true, is the one in which theoretical growth is ahead of empirical growth. Those. A more heuristic theory is one that helps predict new facts, provides an increase in knowledge, and does not simply systematize already known facts (philos.msu.ru/library/).

The essence of the simplicity criterion is as follows: of two theories, preference should be given to the one that explains reality based on a smaller number of independent assumptions, i.e. more simple. The criterion of simplicity goes back to such principles formulated in the history of philosophy as the requirement to minimize assumptions when explaining Aristotle, Occam’s razor (do not multiply entities unnecessarily), and the requirement of simplicity of knowledge by G. Leibniz (www.philosophy.ru). It is human nature to look for the simplest solution. But the property of simplicity of knowledge is difficult to describe unambiguously. There is no unity in assessing the criterion of simplicity itself; some philosophers consider it effective, others consider it a theoretical chimera that should be removed from science and philosophy.

It should be noted that none of the criteria of truth can be considered as absolute and applied in isolation from others; it is obvious that only in combination do they make it possible to distinguish the true from the untrue with greater accuracy.

Practice

The way of “being of the world” is movement in its absolute characteristics. The way of “being in the world” is a specific form of movement. A person’s way of being is his life activity. In the process of activity, a person masters the world taking into account his needs and interests, makes himself, ensuring his certainty. Since man is a social being, his life activity presupposes the life activity of other people and merges in social practice.

Practice is the purposeful activity of people to develop natural and social objects within the boundaries of their environment.

In its content and method of implementation, the practice is of a public nature. It is conditioned by the experience of humanity in its historical development. Being the main way of human existence, the condition for his self-realization and self-affirmation in the world, practice embodies the needs, goal, motive, project of human activity, as well as the act of activity and its result.

Social practice is in unity with human cognitive activity. It is the source of knowledge, the source of primary information and its driving force, because it sets the goal of knowledge and provides it with the necessary information to be processed, systematized and generalized; forms the subject of cognition, orients its direction; realizes a person’s active attitude to reality both at the level of its awareness and at the level of its development.

The nature and direction of the subject's relationship to the object is determined primarily by the real needs and interests of the subject. Need, as an internal motivating impulse, determines the active relationship of the subject to the object (person to the world). Through the prism of needs, the subject realizes and masters the object of his interest, and forms his practical attitude. Practice acts as a universal way of his being, as the embodied unity of motive, goal and result, as an organic connection of the present, past and desired, due and possible.

The wealth of possibilities provides practice with the status of confirming the objective content of knowledge, of being a criterion of the truth of being in the world.

There are many claims regarding the criterion of truth. This is the principle of “economy of thinking” among empiriocritics (what is thought economically is true); the principle of utility among representatives of the school of pragmatism (a true theory that is useful and beneficial); the principle of conventionalism (true is what corresponds to the conventional agreement); the principle of universal validity (what corresponds to the majority opinion is true), etc.

In reality, this or that theory is true not because it is useful or convenient, but because it corresponds to reality. And this compliance is checked and confirmed only by practice.

Having given credit to a practice, one should also remember about its own problems. This is the problem of the relationship between individual and social practice.

Individual practice is limited by personal experience, and social practice is socioculturally conditioned, its capabilities are also limited by the historically determined level of development of society. In addition, the relationship between the individual and the social in practice does not eliminate its subjectivity, does not eliminate the difference between the practical and the impractical in human activity. And therefore, practice, while maintaining its own uncertainty, cannot be an absolute criterion of truth, which does not exclude its active use in the process of mastering being in the world, without forgetting the principle of the concreteness of truth.

What is the criterion of truth in law? What to compare the law with in order to say whether it is good or bad, fair or not. Then we remember that the main criterion of truth at all times is and remains being. Those. reality. It is presented in the form of an indefinite set of laws, orders, and regulations.

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Child's consciousness

The development of consciousness in a child and the level of understanding of what is happening around is a serious issue of interest to many mothers. So, even though a healthy newborn baby is awake, his eyes are open and he is squirming or making faces, it is quite difficult to understand what is really going on in his head.

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Based on current evidence, it is believed that newborns do not have a conscious understanding of their condition, emotions and motivations. In addition, a child’s consciousness, even at preschool age, is quite limited. This can be determined by communicating with children when asking them certain questions.

At the same time, despite the fact that the child’s consciousness has a fairly low level of development, children have to deal with a large amount of information. Thus, newborns already process large amounts of information received through vision and hearing. The child also actively explores the world around him. The development of consciousness is thus a sequential process, including both the perception of information and its processing with the formation of abstract concepts that form the basis of conscious activity.

The way a child’s consciousness develops is also significantly influenced by the maturation features of the body’s nervous system, on which the mental work of any person depends. As a rule, after birth, further maturation of both the peripheral and central nervous systems occurs for some time, which is manifested by an increase in the efficiency of their functioning.

Also, it is necessary to distinguish the unconditioned reflexes inherent in the genome of each person from the manifestation of certain signs of consciousness. However, there is reason to assume that a person has a basic level of consciousness, which is manifested already in childhood by the following signs: recognition of the mother’s voice and imitation of certain movements. However, to date it has not been possible to reliably determine whether this is so.

For consciousness to exist, a network of closely interconnected nerve cells in the brain requires operation. The greatest role in this complex process is represented by the thalamo-cortical complex, which is formed already at 24-28 weeks of intrauterine development. After about another 6-8 weeks, synchronization of the electroencephalographic rhythm is noted, which indicates the integration of neurons. Thus, the structures that enable the functioning of consciousness are ready only by the third semester of pregnancy.

There is a certain model of the functioning of the central nervous system that ensures the existence of consciousness. Thus, after encountering a particular stimulus, an adult develops a certain algorithm aimed at attracting attention and processing the information received. This becomes the basis for the process of consciousness to start. It was found that this algorithm for receiving and processing information occurs in some children at the age of 5 months and in all at the age of 12 months, but the speed of these processes is three times lower than in adults.

To study the processes that speak about consciousness in children, foreign scientists conducted a number of studies. Thus, one study compared the presence of a continuous stream of thoughts in children and adults. As you know, even at rest a person has some thoughts, the flow of which practically never stops. At the same time, in 4-year-old children who were not engaged in solving any problems, it was noted that there was no flow of thoughts. As a rule, already in the school period there is a strong change in cognitive activity.

The first model, which is a primitive form of social consciousness, is already formed in the children's group. As a rule, the system of relationships in kindergarten and school is much simpler, but it plays a big role in the socialization of the individual.

As a rule, consciousness is influenced by internal factors associated with both nervous overstrain and changes in hormonal levels. Thus, stress in small quantities leads to an increase in the intensity of cognitive processes, while with prolonged stress depression of consciousness occurs. Consciousness is also influenced by hormonal levels, changes in which are most pronounced during puberty.

Concept and characteristics

Sensory cognition is the formation in a person of ideas about the reality around him at the instinctive level.

Such cognition is made possible through vision, smell, touch, hearing and taste.

This form of perception of reality is inherent not only to people , but also to animals. By receiving certain impressions and sensations from the surrounding nature, animals accumulate experience and knowledge, which they later use for the purpose of survival.

The same principle applies to people. Based on his visual, auditory, taste or other ideas, a person learns about the world around him and draws his own conclusions .

The systematic receipt of information allows you to accumulate individual knowledge and form your own opinion about certain phenomena and processes.

Since people are social creatures , sensory knowledge alone is not enough for full functioning in society. Relying only on their emotions, individuals can commit irrational, thoughtless actions.

For this reason, the sensory sphere is always under the control of the mind , which has a restraining and regulatory effect.

Weighted, deliberate decision-making is usually more effective than emotional impulse based on feelings.

Adult consciousness

The consciousness of an adult is closely connected with personality, the foundations of which are laid already in childhood. Thus, character, temperament and orientation significantly affect consciousness.

In most cases, people in modern society live in the same conditions for quite a long time. In this regard, it is quite difficult to trace changes in the consciousness of an individual over a short period of time (within one or several weeks). The exception is situations that radically change a person’s way of life (serious accidents, catastrophes, death of loved ones).

It is much easier to notice that consciousness has changed if the period of time during which the changes were noted is 5 years or more. So, it is no secret to anyone that the consciousness of a person at the age of 30 and 50 years is very different. Typically, this is significantly associated with differences in social roles. Thus, under the age of 30, people are creating a career and family, and therefore have a more active position.

The midlife crisis has a significant impact on a person's consciousness. As a rule, this condition does not occur in all people. It is associated with the discrepancy between expectations and ambitions in youth and realities in adulthood. Also, the crisis, the intensification of the crisis, may be associated with the realization that a significant part of life has passed and its end is not so far away.

A temporary change in the state of consciousness associated with taking various psychotropic compounds is also possible. As a rule, it usually occurs among people under 30 years of age. These drugs include alcohol and drugs. With a strong change in consciousness, illusions and hallucinations may be observed.

Factors such as:

• social environment (friends, colleagues);
• presence of higher education;
• material support;
• type of professional activity;
• religion and culture;
• life experience;
• presence or absence of family.

Consciousness in the elderly

As people age, their consciousness undergoes changes. This is usually associated with a fundamental change in the individual’s environment, attitude towards him, as well as internal changes. E. Erikson believed that old age is one of the stages in the development of personality and, accordingly, consciousness. According to his theory, people either become a whole person or realize that the end of life is near and begin to worry about it.

Due to the fact that almost all elderly people over the age of 65 change their environment and activities, the consciousness of the individual also changes significantly. This is also due to a decrease in the quantity and quality of communication, since a person and his mental activity directly depends on society. The quality of communication is understood as the difference between the consciousness of young and older people. In this regard, older people often have a fear of being misunderstood, which leads to reclusiveness. In more rare cases, if factors such as financial insecurity and fear of loneliness are also present, the likelihood of suicide increases.

Depending on what behavior predominates in the elderly, scientist Ferdinand Giese proposed dividing them into the following types:

• negativist - awareness of old age does not occur;
• extrovert - awareness of old age occurs through studying the environment;
• introvert - awareness of old age is the result of experiences and is combined with memories of the life lived.

With age, organic changes accumulate in the human body, leading to damage to the central nervous system. As a rule, this often causes ischemic or hemorrhagic strokes, which in most cases impair higher brain activity and, thus, consciousness. There is also a high probability of death or loss of certain functions. Changes in consciousness are also affected by stress caused by a decrease in quality of life.

A change in consciousness can be caused by fluctuations in hormonal levels associated with the decline of reproductive functions in men and women. As a rule, this is reflected in changes in behavior.

According to numerous studies by American scientists, a person’s consciousness significantly depends on the education received and the type of professional activity. Thus, older people whose work activity was associated with intellectual work retained cognitive abilities much longer than people with secondary vocational education.

Lecture 7. Activity and consciousness of the individual

The human psyche is fundamentally different from the psyche of even the most highly organized animals. It represents consciousness. As for those moments of reflection that are characteristic of both man and animal, in man they, constituting unity with consciousness, are essentially of a subordinate nature. Even a reflex act in a person can sometimes act as a way and a unique mechanism for carrying out a conscious action. In animals, such an act can only be part of a more or less complex instinctive action and “serve” it.

Consciousness is the unity of all mental processes, states and properties of a person as a person; it is an extremely complex process of reflecting objective reality. In other words, when defining consciousness, we can emphasize that this is the highest level of a person’s mental reflection of reality, its representation in the form of generalized images and concepts.

Consciousness represents the unity of all forms of human cognition and his relationship to what he reflects. Sensation, memory, thinking, mood, dream, inclination, perseverance, integrity and all other mental processes, states and properties of a person are forms of manifestation of his consciousness.

The development of all mental functions in their interaction ensures the formation in a person of an internal reflection of the external world, in a sense, its model. The guiding influence of this model on human behavior is reflected by him as consciousness.

The objective world, influencing a person, is reflected in his consciousness - it turns into the ideal, and consciousness as ideal is translated into actions, into the real.

One of the fundamental principles of Russian psychology, the principle of the unity of consciousness and activity, is to affirm their interrelation and interdependence: a person’s activity determines the formation of his consciousness, and the latter, by regulating a person’s activity, improves his adaptability to the outside world. Consciousness forms the internal plan of activity, its program. It is in consciousness that dynamic models of reality are synthesized, with the help of which a person navigates the surrounding physical and social environment.

Consciousness determines the preliminary, mental construction of actions, the anticipation of their consequences, the control and management of human behavior, his ability to be aware of what is happening in himself and in the world around him. The use of consciousness allows a person, at the end of the labor process, to obtain a result that was already in the person’s mind at the beginning of this process, that is, ideal. Unlike animals, a person does not simply implement a program of behavior laid down by the species’ experience, determined by purely biological needs, but develops his own program by putting forward new goals and objectives.

Conscious, expedient and voluntary regulation of human behavior is possible due to the fact that he forms an internal model of the external world. Within the framework of this model, mental manipulation is carried out, it allows you to compare the current state with the past and not only outline the goals of future behavior, but also clearly imagine them. This is how forethought is realized - the presentation of the consequences of actions before they are committed - and step-by-step control over the approach to the goal is carried out by minimizing the difference between the actual and desired state of affairs.

The advantages of the internal model over the need to actually try out all the intended actions are also manifested in the fact that it allows for the transfer of learning, that is, the correct solution of a new task in a previously unknown area where a person has no experience, if according to some criteria the new task has similar features to the old one. Such a positive transfer eliminates the need to accumulate one’s own practical experience in each specific area and thus improves a person’s adaptation to the environment. However, resorting to a thought experiment and to predictions based on taking into account dynamic processes and a model can give good results only if the external environment does not change too quickly: after all, any model is inertial, and if the external environment is too changeable, a forecast based on the model can lead to mistakes.

It is obvious that without the participation of memory, ideas cannot be formed and stored, which are objects of manipulation in anticipation of the result of future behavior. The very fact of introducing information about a certain event into memory indicates its certain significance (otherwise it would not have entered long-term memory), and the presence of this information there inevitably leads to its inclusion in the entire system of similar facts preserved before it, that is, to the restructuring of the latter. Thus, the impact of memory on consciousness is active, because such a restructuring can give rise to new assessments of events and new goals of action.

Currently, the following properties of consciousness are identified as the main ones: building relationships, cognition and experience. This directly follows the inclusion of thinking and emotions in the processes of awareness. Indeed, the main function of thinking is to identify objective relationships between objects and phenomena among themselves, and the main function of emotions is to form a person’s subjective attitude towards objects, phenomena and people. These forms and types of relationships are synthesized in the structures of consciousness, and they determine both the organization of behavior and the deep processes of self-esteem and self-awareness.

The subjective attitude given to a person in emotions is inextricably linked with experience. The concept of experience expresses a special mental aspect of consciousness: it can be more or less expressed, but it is always present in every real specific mental phenomenon; it is always given in relationship and unity with another moment - knowledge, especially essential for consciousness.

Really existing in a single stream of consciousness, an image and a thought can, colored by emotions, become a feeling and, therefore, be experienced. According to K.K. Platonov, experience is a genetically more ancient mental function; cognition, which is also characteristic of animals in rudimentary forms, acquired verbal expression in humans in connection with the development of speech and determined the social aspect of its development; building relationships is inherent only to humans. In this context, it is important to emphasize that consciousness develops in a person only in social contacts.

Almost all of the higher mental processes considered contribute to the specifics of the organization of consciousness. The most obvious role of language is as a tool of internal activity. Most researchers agree that awareness is closely related to verbalization. With the advent of language, a person creates subjective images of the objective world that are accessible to control, ideas that he can manipulate even in the absence of visual perceptions. This is the decisive contribution of language to the mechanisms of consciousness. Many scientists identified the unconscious with nonverbal behavior that is not fixed in words. They assumed that those impressions that are accumulated without the participation of speech are unconscious. The first year of a child’s life, about which he remembers nothing, from this position seems to disappear from his memory, since it is not written down in words.

Some researchers admit that consciousness, as the structure of the internal model of the external world, is genetically specified and “triggered” and begins to function during physical and social contacts of a person with his environment. The position of A. N. Leontyev looks more convincing, who believes that the development of consciousness does not follow the path of transition of external activity into a pre-existing internal plan, but along the path of the formation of this internal plan itself. Initially, action on the internal plane is still based on real action in a real situation, and only then does a truly thought experiment with images or ideas become possible. In the early stages of formation, consciousness exists only in the form of a mental image that reveals to a person the world around him, while its activity remains practical, external. At a later stage of development, internal activity also becomes the subject of consciousness. Gradually, consciousness as an image, a picture of the external world, is transformed into a model in which one can already mentally act. Now consciousness in its entirety begins to control external practical activity and seems independent of the sensory-practical sphere.

The crowning achievement of the development of higher mental functions is the formation of self-awareness, which allows a person not only to reflect the external world, but, having distinguished himself in this world, to cognize his inner world, experience it and relate to himself in a certain way. As I.M. Sechenov wrote, self-awareness gives “a person the opportunity to treat the acts of his own consciousness critically, that is, to separate everything internal from everything that comes from the outside, analyze it and compare it with the external word, to study the act of his own consciousness.” Self-awareness in its essence has a deeply social character. The measure for a person in his attitude towards himself is, first of all, other people. Each new social contact changes a person’s idea of ​​himself, and gradually he develops a whole system of such ideas. This belief system becomes more meaningful as a person interacts with more and more diverse groups. Evaluating oneself from the point of view of those with whom a person meets at home, at school, at work, gradually makes him more multifaceted. Conscious behavior is not so much a manifestation of what a person really is, but rather the result of a person’s ideas about himself, which have developed on the basis of communication with others around him. This is what gave rise to the famous visual analogy: each person is at the intersection of a unique combination of social spheres, each of which he is a part of.

Awareness of oneself as some stable object presupposes internal integrity, the constancy of the personality, which, regardless of changing situations, is capable of remaining itself. Unity, integrity and independence in the perception of one’s “I”, that is, recognition of oneself during the continuous change in the external conditions of a person’s existence, which leads to a constant transformation of the inner world, is the pinnacle in the struggle for a person’s independence from the environment. We have already talked about individual stages of this path, when we discussed the boundaries of image constancy, the properties of memory and attention, which give stability to our reactions over time, ensuring the implementation of selectivity, guided by the internal needs of a person under variable external influences. It is these qualities of mental processes that constitute the necessary conditions for the development of self-awareness.

A person’s sense of his uniqueness is supported by the continuity of his experiences over time. He has both memories of the past and hopes for the future. The continuity of such experiences gives a person the opportunity to integrate himself into a single whole. The continuity of consciousness, manifested in the form of “I,” is determined by long-term memory and, in turn, determines its role in the structure of consciousness. Only long-term memory provides a sense of continuity and continuity; it is its participation in the processes of consciousness and self-awareness that creates the conditions for a sense of self-identity of the individual, despite changes in both external conditions and the individual himself.

In ontogenesis, self-awareness develops as the child’s social connections become more complex; an essential condition for its emergence is the acquisition of speech. I.M. Sechenov also pointed out the importance of speech in the emergence of self-awareness. He noted that the perception of the external world is constantly accompanied by indivisible “dark” virgin reactions of bodily origin. In connection with the development of speech, it becomes possible to separate signals coming from the external and internal environment and assign different names to them. Then any excitation can be “torn out” from its natural connection and retained in memory separately and isolated from others, thereby creating conditions for separating excitations coming from the external environment from excitations coming from the internal organs. Thus, a person has the prerequisites for separating himself from the outside world.

Children’s awareness of their “I” occurs gradually. The child initially exists for himself insofar as he acts as an object for other people.

First, the child is aware of the actions of other people, then through them - his own actions; their awareness is associated with imitation, representations and sound speech.

The first stage in the development of self-awareness is compared with the child’s transition from random actions to voluntary, purposeful actions. The child becomes aware of the parts of his own body as he becomes able to control them voluntarily. Gradually, the objects to which the child directs his activity begin to become aware. The separation of oneself from one’s own actions is reinforced in the child’s assimilation of his own name. At two years old, the classic formula “I myself” appears. First, the children talk about themselves in different faces: “Don’t make noise,” “Mitya washed himself.” Only by the age of three does the child fully master the pronoun “I” and begin to actively express himself in speech. The main role in the process of formation of his inner world is played by imitation and representation; they unfold in two different planes: the first - in the motor plane, the latter - in terms of images and symbols, but they have something in common due to the similarity of their role. Imitations and representations make it possible to combine impressions into a single timeless model, independent of the pace of development of events in the external environment - a model of the external world.

One of the sources of consciousness formation is children's games. Until 3-4 years of age, these are imitation games with the desire to copy the actions of an adult, then these are games according to the rules. Here the child begins to fulfill a certain, assumed role; In these games, relationships between people are mastered. The child plays “mother-daughter”, “shop”, taking on a specific role. Before role-playing games arise, children play nearby, but not together. Role-playing games already represent a reproduction of those relationships between others that are known to the child and accessible to his perception. These games can be seen as a simplified model of a variety of social relationships. By performing different roles, the child gains a basic understanding of himself and his capabilities. Role-playing games prepare the child for entry into the adult world with its social connections. By mastering productive activities, a person masters real family, professional, and social roles. It is they who determine the further path of development of his consciousness and self-awareness. Only in adolescence does the formation of a self-aware personality occur.

Self-awareness is the most highly organized mental process. It is formed through interaction with other people, mainly with those with whom particularly significant contacts arise. However, self-awareness is associated not only with the impact of these contacts, but also with self-esteem, which depends on the ratio of successes and aspirations, that is, on the success of a person’s activities.

The main function of self-awareness is to make the motives and results of his actions accessible to a person and make it possible to understand what he really is and to evaluate himself; if the assessment turns out to be unsatisfactory, then the person can either engage in self-improvement, or, by turning on defense mechanisms, repress this unpleasant information, avoiding the traumatic influence of internal conflict. Only through awareness of one’s individuality does a special function of self-awareness arise, protective, the desire to protect one’s individuality from the threat of its leveling. On this basis, a number of protective mechanisms develop.

In self-awareness, motives and actions are correlated, some motives with others, and thereby a hierarchy of motives is built. Clarification for oneself of the most significant motives marks the development of personality. Such awareness leads to the restructuring of all systems of attitudes and forms the ideal “I”. In turn, the ideal “I” affects social adaptation, the level of anxiety, and the characteristics of motivation; it also imposes prohibitions and moral restrictions on all human behavior. The personal qualities he strives for determine both his near and distant goals, and the difference between the ideal and real “I” serves as a source of motivation. According to Freud, the “I” is the center of conscious adaptation to the environment, including perception, intellect and motor skills. James included his own body, some objects, close people, memories and certain long-term and especially significant thoughts into the “I” system. A person’s own “I” now also includes his character, temperament and abilities.

For self-awareness, the most important thing is to become yourself (to form yourself as a person), to remain yourself (despite interfering influences) and to be able to support yourself in difficult conditions. In order to self-actualize, to become yourself, the best of what you are capable of becoming, you must dare to completely surrender to something, to immerse yourself in something without reserve, forgetting your postures, overcoming the desire for protection and your shyness, and experiencing this something without self-criticism; decide to make choices, make decisions and take responsibility; listen to yourself (and not just dad, mom, teacher and authority), give the opportunity to express your individuality; continuously develop your mental abilities, that is, realize your capabilities fully at every given moment.

One of the characteristic manifestations of self-awareness is reflection. Reflexive reasoning is accompanied by imitation of another person’s thoughts according to the following scheme: “I think that he thinks that I think that...”. Reflection allows you not only to anticipate the behavior of another person and adjust your own accordingly, but also to influence the course of his reasoning, directing the flow of the conversation in the desired direction with remarks.

All ideas about himself that an adult takes for granted are organized into a system that makes his behavior consistent. The interaction of consciousness and self-awareness forms the foundation of voluntary control of appropriate behavior.

Activity can be defined as a specific type of human activity aimed at knowledge and creative transformation of the surrounding world, including oneself and the conditions of one’s existence.

In general historical terms, the main type of activity that determines the development of human consciousness is labor. Therefore, when studying the consciousness of an individual, it is necessary to take into account the characteristics of his work activity.

Animals only consume what is given to them by nature. Man, on the contrary, creates more than he consumes.

When studying the activity and consciousness of an individual, it is necessary to take into account that a person, by virtue of his social essence, steadily moves forward along the path of development, and does not repeat the cycles of life, as happens in the animal world. Psychologically, the life path of a particular person does not repeat the life path of all previous generations of people. In accordance with this, psychology studies the main types of human activity in terms of their development during the life of a particular person. This approach makes it possible to reveal the psychological patterns of the formation of consciousness not in general, but specifically of the individual.

The main types of human activity include work, learning, and play.

During the game,

which begins in children with increased attention to individual objects and later becomes a game with a plot and according to the rules, a person who begins to act consciously learns about the world around him. On this basis, he creates certain ideas, various shades of feelings, volitional qualities and knowledge about the properties of objects and their purpose, about adults, their relationships, about himself, about his capabilities, advantages and disadvantages.

Thus, in games that ultimately reflect social relations, each participant is psychologically formed as an individual. This is most typical for childhood.

Teaching -

a historically determined process that meets the needs of society in shaping the consciousness of the individual of his era. The teaching represents the progressive reproduction of man as a conscious personality based on his assimilation of the practical and theoretical experience of mankind. At the same time, people are aware of the learning process as a special type of activity and deliberately establish goals, content, principles, methods and create the organizational foundations of this process.

In the process of learning, regardless of age, each person acquires the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities, which are systematically enriched and improved. At the same time, he develops mental qualities, feelings, will, worldview, and moral principles that characterize him as a conscious person.

occupies a special place in a person’s life .

In the process of physical and mental labor, people influence nature and create everything that is necessary to satisfy their material and spiritual needs. This is the essence of work. Therefore, work is a decisive condition for the formation of personality and its consciousness.

However, this does not mean at all that work automatically, in itself, forms a personality with an advanced consciousness. Moreover, backbreaking, exhausting work, as is known, causes a person to have a negative attitude towards it and gives rise to a tendency to evade it. For example, slave labor in the era of slave ownership could not educate a person and form in him a consciously positive attitude towards work and the tools of labor.

In activity, a person not only creates objects of material and spiritual culture, but also transforms his abilities, preserves and improves nature, builds society, creates something that would not exist in nature without his activity.

The creative nature of human activity is manifested in the fact that thanks to it it goes beyond the limits of its natural limitations, that is, it exceeds its own genotypically determined capabilities. Due to the productive, creative nature of his activity, man has created sign systems, tools for influencing himself and nature.

When considering the main types of activity as conditions for the formation of a person’s consciousness, it is necessary to take into account that in life work, learning and play are often mutually intertwined. Thus, there are many elements of learning in play, and in learning there are many elements of work. In turn, work, as a rule, contains elements of teaching. But no matter how closely intertwined play, learning and work may be, they still have their own significant differences, which are determined by the goals of each type of activity and the methods of achieving them.

What is common to play, learning and work is that in order to satisfy his needs, a person must master the relationships between people, things and phenomena of the surrounding world, and the specifics of his activity.

Motives of human activity

may be different:

— organic

(satisfying the natural needs of the body);

— functional

(satisfied through various cultural forms of activity, such as games and sports);

— social

(give rise to various types of activities aimed at taking a certain place in society, gaining recognition and respect from those around them);

— spiritual

(underlie those activities that are associated with human self-improvement).

As a goal

activity is its
product.
The subject of an activity is what it is directly aimed at.

Every activity has a certain structure.

Human activity consists of actions and deeds.

Actions are an elementary part of activity in which the simplest goal is achieved, which cannot be decomposed into simpler ones. Each action has a beginning and an end, a semantic completion, and is aimed at achieving relatively close goals. Action is always conscious to one degree or another.

Actions are actions that are subordinated to moral principles. Their social significance is recognized by man. Therefore, people’s actions, in their content, can be noble and unworthy, positive and negative. At the same time, an action is also a way of carrying out a specific action. As many different ways of performing an action as there are, so many different actions can be distinguished.

The unity of actions and deeds performed in play, learning and work represents human activity. In it, a person is formed and manifests himself as a person with consciousness. It should be added to this that the influence of activity on the formation of the consciousness of a particular person largely depends on his professional orientation.

Mental processes are the most important components of any human activity. But at the same time, they not only participate in the activity, they develop in it and themselves represent special types of activity. Thus, any activity is a combination of internal and external, mental and behavioral actions and actions.

Automated, consciously, semiconsciously and unconsciously controlled components of activity are called skills, abilities and habits, respectively.

Skills are elements of activity that allow you to do something with high quality, for example, accurately and correctly perform an action, operation, series of actions or operations. Skills usually include automatically performed parts, called skills, but in general represent consciously controlled parts of the activity, at least in the main intermediate points and the final goal.

Skills are fully automated, instinct-like components of skills, implemented at the level of unconscious control. If by action we understand a part of an activity that has a clearly defined conscious goal, then a skill can also be called an automated component of an action.

are of great importance in the formation of all types of skills .

Thanks to them, skills are automated, skills and activities are improved in general. Exercises are necessary both at the stage of developing skills and abilities, and in the process of maintaining them. Without constant, systematic exercise, skills and abilities are usually lost and lose their qualities.

Another element of activity is habit. It differs from skills and abilities in that it represents a so-called unproductive element of activity. If skills and abilities are related to solving a problem, involve obtaining a product and are quite flexible (in the structure of complex skills), then habits are an inflexible (often unreasonable) part of an activity that is performed by a person mechanically and has no conscious purpose or clearly expressed productive completion. Unlike a simple skill, a habit can be consciously controlled to a certain extent. But it differs from skill in that it is not always reasonable and useful (bad habits). Habits, as elements of activity, are the least flexible parts of it.

Structure of consciousness

The structure of consciousness is studied by phenomenology, a doctrine founded by Edmund Husserl. This research method is based on the study of attitudes towards the physical world. As a rule, the most common method for studying consciousness in phenomenology is introspection. With this method, the essence of the study of consciousness is to compare information received from the senses and from memory.

However, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the effectiveness of phenomenology as a method for studying the structure of consciousness was seriously questioned. However, at present, in combination with modern methods of studying brain activity, phenomenology as a related branch of philosophy and psychology has again become widespread.

As a rule, in most cases consciousness is determined by the environment. Immanuel Kant also said that the structure of consciousness is a reflection of the external world, consisting of individual objects with a set of individual characteristics, including:

• shape;
• quality (color, warmth, etc.);
• space (distance, direction and localization);
• time.

The world of consciousness and its structure have been studied by neuroscientists. The greatest interest was caused by the processes occurring inside the brain. As a rule, two main mechanisms for obtaining information were studied:

• hierarchical processing of data from the senses;
• memory.

Thus, from the senses, information through subcortical structures enters the cerebral cortex, where it is processed and interpreted the data received. The same thing happens with hearing, as well as other senses.

Memory has a double meaning. First, new information is compared with existing data, which is important for interpreting the received sensations. Secondly, information in memory is the main basis for the formation of ideas or feelings about a particular object.

And yet, even despite the large amount of information, it is quite difficult to establish the specific structure of the brain responsible for the formation of consciousness. In this regard, scientists have come to the conclusion that consciousness, despite its apparent unity, is responsible for several interconnected brain structures.

In accordance with the object being studied, the following levels of consciousness are distinguished:

• personal;
• public.

Social consciousness

Social consciousness is formed by many individuals and is a set of collective ideas characteristic of a certain time period and reflecting the essence and state of a specific group of people. As a rule, the consciousness of each individual not only changes under the influence of society, but also actively changes it.

Forms of consciousness

As a rule, philosophers focus on studying consciousness using the example of a specific individual. At the same time, sociology examines the main forms of social consciousness:

• art;
• science;
• morality;
• legal consciousness;
• religion;
• ideology.

As a rule, the forms of social consciousness are determined by the structure of a particular social group and the relationships existing in it between individuals, which can be:

• economic;
• political;
• moral;
• aesthetic.

Art as a form of social consciousness is a special way of knowing and reflecting reality, the result of which is the creation of aesthetically expressive objects (music, paintings, literary works). At the heart of art is creativity.

Science, as a form of consciousness, is understood as human activity, which is based on the development and systematization of objective knowledge about the external world. In this case, hypotheses are created, confirmed by facts or experiments and formulated in the form of laws of nature or society.

Morality as a form of consciousness allows people to differentiate between good and bad, good and evil, significantly affecting decision-making regarding certain actions. To some extent, morality is determined by individual ideas and is synonymous with morality.

Legal consciousness, as a form of consciousness, is understood as a set of views and ideas that are the subjective attitude of an individual to legal phenomena. Legal relations represent a system of rules that regulate relations between people in society and establish penalties for non-compliance with the rules.

Religion as a doctrine originated more than 40 thousand years ago and is a system of beliefs based on belief in the supernatural. Religion has a significant influence on consciousness, forming a set of values, rituals and worldview.

Ideology is a set of ordered views that express the interests of various sectors of society. Ideology is closely related to religion and politics.

Levels of Consciousness

In accordance with the depth of penetration of the subject of cognition into objective reality, it is customary to divide the levels of consciousness into:

• everyday practical;
• scientific and theoretical.

These levels of consciousness differ significantly in their manifestations in society. Thus, while the everyday practical level is less structured and superficial, it is more accessible to the average person and is used in the everyday life of an individual, representing a system of everyday interpersonal relationships. At the same time, the scientific-theoretical level of consciousness has a clear structure and is rather ideological in nature.

Subjects of the process of consciousness

It is possible to identify subjects and objects that take part in the processes of consciousness. As a rule, they differ according to the level of consciousness (personal or social).

Thus, if the process of consciousness is studied at the level of the individual, then the subject is a specific individual. In this case, the objects of consciousness include all elements that arise during his mental activity and are a reflection of the surrounding world.

The situation with objects and subjects of social consciousness is much more complicated. So, given the fact that society cannot be the bearer of the thought process, we can conclude that the bearer or subject of social consciousness is a group of people who have a similar understanding of reality.

Thus, the subjects of social consciousness include:

• social class;
• nationality;
• state;
• humanity as a whole.

The objects of social consciousness are the established complex of relationships and values ​​characteristic of a certain group of people. It is a well-known fact that a person’s personality is inextricably linked with society. And, even despite the ability of the individual to generate his own consciousness with the help of thinking, his attempts to exist separately from society turned out to be untenable.

There is also an opinion that socio-historical groups are integral subjects of social consciousness, making serious decisions that affect their existence. Thus, the state can either start or end a war, and social classes decide how to exist in accordance with a specific economic or political situation.

However, in such situations, the active subject of consciousness is a narrow circle of people who have power in one or another structure and make decisions in accordance with established rules or laws. As a rule, ordinary representatives of society have an indirect influence on certain decisions through the selection of management.

How consciousness is formed

As a rule, the main processes associated with the formation of consciousness occur in childhood and are subject to significant fluctuations due to the variety of environmental characteristics.

There are a number of methods aimed at increasing the level of adaptation of an individual to the outside world by conveying views, beliefs, concepts and ideas. With their help, consciousness is formed. The transmission of information is carried out verbally, that is, with the help of words. This allows you to increase the volume and accuracy of transmitted data.

The most common methods aimed at creating consciousness in life include:

• belief;
• story;
• explanation;
• clarification;
• lecture;
• ethical discourse;
• dispute;
• exhortation;
• suggestion;
• example.

Conviction is understood as proof of a particular proposition, which is based on a logical chain of facts. Thus, when using persuasion as a method of changing consciousness, it is not the facts themselves that are transmitted, but the logic of judgments. This method is most often used during discussions.

A story and a lecture are similar concepts, since these methods use statements of facts. However, the lecture material is based on a dry presentation of information that does not have a bright emotional coloring, while when telling a story, much attention is paid to creating sensory contrast. The story allows you to form an attitude towards certain actions, norms and behavior.

In situations where an individual is not able to fully interpret the information received, in order to increase the effectiveness of methods of forming consciousness, explanation and clarification are used.

The main goal of an ethical conversation is for the teacher and students to discuss moral, moral and ethical problems. In general, it is important to use the principles of equity and cooperation during ethical conversations. Pursuing this method of consciousness formation is aimed at strengthening and strengthening attitudes and beliefs.

Dispute is understood as a lively debate that contributes not only to the formation of certain views, but also to the development of thinking. However, to conduct a dispute, it is necessary not only to have the necessary amount of information sufficient to operate with the available data.

Exhortation and suggestion are methods of influencing consciousness, in which the authority of the person who appeals to certain feelings of the subject of consciousness is used. Examples of these methods include request, praise and reproach.

The basis of an example as a method of forming consciousness is the creation of a role model, orientation towards which will motivate the individual for further development. As a rule, the first role models in most people's lives are their parents. It is the observation of their behavior that develops character.

The formation of consciousness is a continuous process that allows the individual to adapt to existence in specific environmental conditions. Thus, with age, the worldview, the purpose of life, priorities and the personality itself change significantly.

Personal consciousness

The consciousness of an individual is determined by a set of ideas about oneself, which is the result of memories, introspection and external environmental influences. It is in accordance with self-awareness that human behavior is determined.

Self-esteem also has a great influence on individual behavior. It is based on the correspondence of the level of aspiration (desired) to reality. Thus, with inflated self-esteem, the individual’s consciousness overestimates his capabilities and merits, which can negatively affect relationships in society. At the same time, low self-esteem causes a decrease in the effectiveness of using the individual’s real potential.

Individual development of consciousness

The development of consciousness is determined by a combination of the following processes:

• phylogeny;
• ontogeny.

Phylogenesis is based on a long process of improvement of the human species with the genetic fixation of the most beneficial features of consciousness for survival. In this way, abilities and temperament are transmitted, which affect not only the personal characteristics of the individual, but also his consciousness.

The development of consciousness in the process of ontogenesis occurs in the period from birth to death. Thus, if during the process of phylogenesis certain behavioral features are laid down, then during ontogenesis their adjustment is possible with a subsequent change in consciousness.

The role of consciousness in human life

Consciousness plays a huge role in the life of every person, since it is what determines the individual’s attitude to reality and, accordingly, his behavior. Thus, consciousness and meaningful activity of a person are integral elements of his life. It is thanks to consciousness that a person not only adapts to new conditions, but also changes the environment.

Consciousness in a person’s life determines the relationships between people, as well as the circle of friends, belonging to one or another social class. This, as a rule, often affects a person’s position in society, professional activity and family relationships.

Sensory cognition and its forms

Sensory cognition reflects phenomena, i.e. external manifestation of things. It is not capable of delving into the essence of the subject.

Forms of sensory knowledge:

1. Feelings are a snapshot of reality, which is given anew each time. This is a reflection of individual properties of reality. There is no integrity of the object in sensations.

2.Perception is a holistic, but snapshot of reality. It exists as long as the object affects our senses. An object exists independently of our consciousness, and this eludes perception.

3. A representation is a holistic snapshot of reality that exists in our minds, regardless of whether the object affects our senses or not.

Sensory cognition is limited, it does not go deep into the essence, and the world has an internal essence, therefore sensory cognition turns into logical cognition, which reflects the essence of objects.

The process of cognition goes through two main stages: sensory (or living contemplation) and logical (abstract thinking). These stages differ primarily in the subject of reflection, i.e. aspects of reality that they reflect. The difference in objects of reflection determines the difference between sensory and logical forms of reflection, which also depend on the nature of the subject of knowledge - man.

Sensory cognition

Sensory cognition - knowledge of the world using the senses (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile and taste analyzers + motor analyzer and vestibular apparatus)

Sensory cognition is a reflection of the external aspects of reality or phenomena. Since not all phenomena are reflected in the senses, the phenomena accessible to the latter can be called sensory phenomena.

Color, smell, etc. are states of knowledge of a thing, and not the immediate properties of the thing themselves. These states include both the actual properties of a thing, or objective content, and the subjective form of their display, depending on the nature of man.

Cognition is possible because sensations give us some knowledge. Our sensations are specialized - for example, we can perceive sounds only of a certain frequency.

Psychophysiological paradox. As is known, mental images arise in the brain from physiological processes and exist on their basis. Brain activity can therefore be represented by two different pictures. From a psychological point of view, it consists of a set of qualitatively heterogeneous mental images; in the physiological aspect, brain activity is represented as a set of qualitatively homogeneous physiological processes. How do qualitatively heterogeneous mental (ideal) images arise from qualitatively homogeneous physiological processes?

The most important component of nerve impulses are electrical impulses. It is clear that an electrical impulse, a fairly simple physical phenomenon, cannot contain the heterogeneous qualities of light, sound, tactile and other influences. Where do they “pop up” in the brain?

In psychophysiological studies, it was found that the qualities of external agents are encoded in receptors through frequency modulation of electrical impulses - the distribution of impulses over time.

There is no doubt that the mechanism of activity of the nervous system includes the processes of encoding and decoding. The fact is that the encoding-decoding process presupposes the presence of a code, or a key to the code, i.e. knowledge of what sign (series of impulses) marks this or that quality of the external world. But such a code must already exist in the brain, regardless of the encoding-decoding processes, because the brain has never had direct contact with objective qualities. Who (or what) put the code into the human brain?

The subjective, ideal image is produced by the brain (more precisely, by man) as a general and universal material substrate in which the main content of the previous endless development of matter is synthesized and which, therefore, is in deep kinship with the entire infinite qualitative diversity of the world. The brain deciphers the quality of the external agent not because a code is embedded in the brain from the outside, but because in some deep sense the nature of the external agent is “known” to the brain in advance, embedded in its material nature.

Forms of sensory knowledge

The main forms of sensory cognition are sensations, perceptions and ideas.

Sensation is a form of sensory cognition that reflects the individual external properties of a thing that affect the senses.

It is, therefore, fraught with a specific contradiction - between the conscious individual signs of things and the hidden, unconscious whole.

Perception – represents the display of objects or objective situations as wholes.

Perception includes an integral set of sensations and some essential integral moment of reflection that is not reducible to them. Psychology has shown that the formation of a holistic image of an object (situation) occurs on the basis of a person’s practical activity. Thus, based on actions with things and their movement, a child initially forms an image of the outline of a thing, then a more complex and dissected image of the object as a whole.

Perception, as a holistic image of a thing, overcomes the specific contradiction of sensation. Due to integrity in perception, the sphere of direct awareness includes such aspects of a sensory phenomenon that remained hidden in sensations, first of all, objectivity, integrity, spatial and temporal characteristics of things, movement.

At the level of perception, the world appears to a person as a world of objectively existing things, as an objective world.

Perception overcomes the contradiction of sensation, but it is fraught with its own specific contradiction. Perception is always a “snapshot” of reality, since it exists only with the direct action of an object on the senses and disappears when this action ceases. Therefore, it is also situational and does not grasp the general aspects of things or situations. Perception contains a contradiction between a conscious specific individual object or situation and unconscious general, stable aspects of reality that last beyond the boundaries of the present situation.

Representation is an image of an object or situation that exists even when the objects do not act on the senses.

The most important features of the representation are independence from the direct influence of things on the senses and generalization.

Representation overcomes the limitations of perception and resolves its specific contradiction. The general idea has a visual, immediate, sensual character. Therefore, generalization at the level of ideas is limited to the scope of the phenomenon. You can quite accurately imagine, for example, an acute, an obtuse, and a rectangle, but you cannot sensually imagine a triangle in general, since the external signs of these types of triangle are visually incompatible.

Based on the free operation of ideas and its generalized nature, the ability of imagination arises, including mental creativity of images of non-existent, possible or fantastic things, mental images of future things, visual projects, images of griffins, mermaids, etc.

What is the essence of consciousness?

The question of what the essence of consciousness is, namely what it is, has long caused serious controversy in philosophy and is still not closed. Depending on the era in which certain philosophers lived, the understanding of consciousness differed significantly.

As a rule, in each era the greatest influence on the understanding of the essence of consciousness was exerted by the prevailing ideological attitudes, such as:

• ancient cosmocentrism;
• medieval theocentrism;
• anthropocentrism.

The concept of consciousness in antiquity reflected the connection between the individual and the surrounding world, but only the focus on external objects was considered. Thus, the main problem of understanding consciousness is that the inner world of a person was not taken into account - the ability of the individual to concentrate within himself. Plato and Aristotle gave an analogy with wax and consciousness. They believed that just as a sharp object changes the shape of wax, so consciousness changes under the influence of the external environment.

During the prosperity of Christianity, the concept of consciousness expanded by drawing attention to the inner, spiritual world of man. However, due to the existence of a number of problems in understanding consciousness, a generally accepted opinion has not been formed.

In the era of anthropocentrism, when society somewhat moved away from religion, the essence of consciousness acquired the concept according to which man is not wax on which the external world is imprinted, but rather is a vessel containing the ideas of the external world.

General concept of consciousness

Consciousness is a multi-level system of human perception and reflection of reality. It is consciousness that helps a person carry out life activities in accordance with the norms accepted in society and see the things around him exactly as they are, for example:

1. A person whose healthy consciousness realizes that he is alone in the room, if a person suffers from mental disorders with distortion of consciousness, it seems to him that there is someone else in the room.
2. A person with a healthy consciousness, looking at a wall, understands that it is not moving, but a person with impaired consciousness sees the movement of static objects.
3. A person with healthy self-awareness is aware that the world around him can hide dangers, but at the same time he understands that he is sure that the whole world is trying to harm him.

Human consciousness is a reflection of the reality around him. Conscious are those motives, thoughts and actions that are realized and controlled by a person. Unconscious motives of behavior also find their manifestation in human behavior, but it is much more difficult for a person to control and understand them.

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Consciousness and active activity of the individual

The consciousness and activity of an individual are interconnected parts of human life. As a rule, while consciousness influences the choice of a particular action, active activity, which includes interaction with other actors in society, changes a person's worldview and his understanding of the external and internal world.

It is also believed that thanks to the reflection of the external world in the consciousness, a person has the opportunity to predict the consequences of his activities. Consciousness, thus, allows us to minimize the likelihood of developing negative consequences of our actions.

What states of lost consciousness exist?

The most common states of lost consciousness are:

• dreamless sleep;
• coma;
• death.

At the same time, there are altered states of consciousness. They are, in fact, an intermediate stage between clear and lost consciousness. Typically, the most common method for objectively assessing levels of consciousness is the Glasgow scale.

When using the Glasgow scale, the following are assessed:

• opening the eyes;
• verbal contact;
• physical activity.

Loss of consciousness is characterized by a decrease in the score below 9, which is characteristic of a coma state. At the same time, 9 or more points correspond to stupor, stupor or clear consciousness.

Loss of consciousness can be associated both with natural processes (sleep) and with pathological processes leading to changes in the functioning of the nervous system. The greatest interest is caused by loss of consciousness associated with disruption of the brain.

Thus, loss of consciousness is most often associated with brain damage. In older people, this is usually associated with ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, causing serious disruption of the functioning of nervous tissue. At the same time, in young people, the most common causes of problems with consciousness are exposure to various toxic compounds (alcohol, drugs in toxic doses) and head trauma (for example, even a concussion is often accompanied by loss of consciousness).

Loss of consciousness may be one of the effects of anesthesia administered during surgery. This not only saves the patient from psychological trauma, but also significantly facilitates the technical support of the operation.

How does loss of consciousness manifest?

Loss of consciousness is manifested by a significant decrease in the intensity of mental processes and is manifested, as a rule, by the absence of a person’s conscious reactions to external stimuli. It is also important to distinguish between loss and change in state of consciousness.

The most common problems with loss of consciousness

As a rule, the problem with loss of consciousness in most cases is not its absence, but the severity of the underlying pathological process, which led to a change in the normal functioning of the brain. However, at the same time, if the patient loses consciousness, he cannot escape the influence of harmful factors on his own, and therefore the general condition may worsen.

Characteristics of social and individual consciousness

The essence of social consciousness is formed on the basis of the consciousness of individual people and is not simply the result of their sum. This is due to the fact that each individual consciousness is unique and inimitable and can be fundamentally different from the creation of another person.

The essence of a person’s individual consciousness lies in its diversity and individual character. Individual consciousness is always brighter than public consciousness, but at the same time it is narrower in its views on the world and covers a smaller scale of issues and problems under consideration.

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The individual consciousness of an individual person is not capable of achieving the depth and meaningfulness that is characteristic of social consciousness. This is due to the fact that public consciousness covers all aspects of the spiritual life of society. However, it should be noted that there is a mutual inverse relationship between public and individual consciousness, since social consciousness receives its depth and breadth of review precisely from the experience of each individual person with his individual consciousness.

Social consciousness is always a product of individual consciousness. But, on the other hand, individual consciousness is always largely a product of social consciousness.

How does the concept of consciousness differ in psychology and philosophy?

The concept of consciousness in psychology and philosophy is somewhat different. This is due, first of all, to the fact that the objects of study of these sections of knowledge are different. So, while psychology studies a specific person and the mental processes occurring in him (focused on the inner world of a person), philosophy studies the world around him and the place of man and his consciousness in it.

Thus, the concept of consciousness in philosophy has a broader meaning. In this regard, the following theories exist:

• dualism (consciousness is a reflection of the soul and stands separately from the physical world, while the soul and the physical world have equal rights);
• logical behaviorism (this theory is based on the problems of contradiction between the theory of dualism and physicalism);
• idealism (consciousness prevails over the body and the physical world);
• materialism (the physical world prevails over the spiritual, which includes consciousness);
• functionalism (according to functionalism, consciousness is an ordinary function of physical objects, and therefore consciousness is not given much importance).

The theories of the existence of consciousness in Hinduism and Buddhism are highlighted separately.

Forms of social consciousness

Various ways of intellectual and spiritual acquisition of knowledge about the surrounding reality are forms of social consciousness. Let's look at these forms in more detail.

1. Political consciousness includes a system of knowledge and assessments with the help of which society forms the political sphere. It is the basis for all other forms of social consciousness, due to the fact that it reflects the political and economic interests of various classes and social groups.
2. Legal consciousness includes a system of knowledge and assessments with the help of which awareness in the field of law occurs in society. This type of social consciousness is closely related to political consciousness; therefore, in this form of consciousness both the political and economic interests of various classes and social groups find their manifestation.
3. Moral consciousness is expressed in the historically developing principles of morality in relations between people, between people and society, between people and the law.
4. Aesthetic consciousness is a person’s conscious reflection of the world around him, which occurs in the form of complex experiences. These experiences are associated with a person’s feelings of beauty, tragedy, sublime and comic.
5. Religious consciousness is expressed in the internal experience of a person, which is associated with a person’s feeling of the existing connection between himself and something higher. Religious consciousness interacts with other forms of social consciousness, and, above all, with such as moral consciousness.
6. Economic consciousness is a form of social consciousness that reflects the economic knowledge of society and its socio-economic needs.
7. Moral consciousness, a philosophical concept that is the core of the human personality, his spirituality and everything that is the essence of man and distinguishes him from animals. The peculiarity of moral consciousness is that it is with its help that the reflection and regulation of interpersonal relationships occurs, in which each person is a mirror of the other.

Human

There is only one difference that separates us from animals: people are the first creatures on the path of the evolution of the mind, having the ability to consciously influence reality, or, in other words, to create. According to ancient spiritual traditions, God created man in his own image and likeness. He created people as creators, giving them freedom of choice, and this is his love and the highest gift to humanity. Therefore, good and evil exist exclusively for man, and only man is capable of assessing his own actions and the events of the world around him.

The human mind is the highest form of consciousness among biological species known to science on planet Earth. But it is foolish to believe that this is the end of the evolutionary path. This is the law: we can see clearly what is below. And what is higher is revealed only as a result of achievement.

Author: Elena Zakharchenko

About the concept of knowledge. Forms of the attitude of consciousness to its certainty. Consciousness, self-awareness, mind.

Representation as a form of consciousness.

Representation is the third form of sensory knowledge. Representation as a form is the final result of the perception of any object or phenomenon. The representation reproduces the existing image of the object, which was formed as a result of the experience of interaction with it. That is, it is formed under the influence of existing images, thoughts, impressions. If the experience is positive, then the subject will develop a positive idea about the object and the world as a whole. If negative impressions dominate, the perception will be negative.

Thus, sensory knowledge is the initial stage of all knowledge. Any exploration of the world, perception of its realities begins with him. After a certain time, sensory knowledge is replaced by rational knowledge.

In a broader sense, the word representation means any state of consciousness reproduced by memory: for example, a disappeared feeling can be reproduced by memory as a representation. Thus, representation denotes a secondary, reproduced state of consciousness, hence from the primary one (sensations, feelings, etc.).

Metaphysical type of philosophical thinking.

Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that studies the original nature of reality, the world and existence as such.

METAPHYSICS is a philosophical doctrine about super-experiential principles and laws of being in general or some type of being. In the history of philosophy, the word "metaphysics" has often been used as a synonym for philosophy. The concept of “ontology” is close to him. The term “metaphysics” was introduced by Andronicus of Rhodes, a systematizer of the works of Aristotle (1st century BC), who gave this name to a group of his treatises on “being in itself.” The conventional title of the work later gives the name to the subject of his study, which Aristotle himself defined as “first philosophy,” whose task is to study “the first principles and causes” (Met 982 b 5–10), or as the science of the divine, “theology” ( 1026 a 19). However, metaphysics as a way of philosophical thinking appears long before Aristotle, essentially coinciding with the first steps of philosophy.

Critical (skeptical) type of philosophical thinking.

Criticism. Skepticism is a philosophical trend that puts forward doubt as a principle of thinking, especially doubt about the reliability of truth. Moderate skepticism is limited to knowledge of facts, showing restraint in relation to all hypotheses and theories.

This moment is expressed in a form of thinking that can be designated as critical (skeptical). In this form, the thinking of an object represents the consciousness in itself of the essential opposition between itself and its object. Based on it, thinking, of course, knows itself as definite, and this means that thinking is now definite to itself. However, this certainty is still only final. Therefore, in knowing oneself as finite (i.e., only “subjective” as opposed to the “objectivity” of the object), thinking relates to itself as thinking in general negatively, i.e. it denies itself to be the universal consciousness of the object. As a consequence, thinking declares itself as determined by the oblivion of the object (and, therefore, non-existence). Then it returns to the form of its immediacy, to faith, opposing itself to it as mediated.

About the concept of knowledge. Forms of the attitude of consciousness to its certainty. Consciousness, self-awareness, mind.

The concept of cognition. Cognition is the process of reflecting objective reality, acquiring knowledge and laws of existence.

Science in general is called knowledge. Cognition presupposes the presence of: consciousness, an object of consciousness. P. – the attitude of consciousness to its subject.

The purpose of consciousness is to remove the opposition between consciousness and the object.

Experience is a unity of knowledge and skills (skills) acquired in the process of direct experiences, impressions, observations, practical actions, in contrast to knowledge achieved through speculative abstract thinking.

Types of experience:

1. Physical experience. Based on observations of changes in the environment.

2. Emotional experience.

3. Mental experience. Includes aspects of intelligence and consciousness that develop through a combination of thought units, perception, memory, emotions, will and imagination, including all unconscious cognitive processes.

4. Religious (spiritual, mystical) experience. Its peculiarity lies in the extreme subjectivity of the experience, and, as a consequence, its non-transferability (non-transferability).

5. Social experience. Provides the individual with the skills necessary to participate in society, as society is formed through the exchange of experiences, customs, values, traditions, social roles and language.

Forms of relationship. The relationship between being and consciousness has been a subject of debate in science since ancient times. Materialists believe that existence determines consciousness. Idealists point to the primacy of consciousness in relation to being. From these provisions follows the problem of the cognizability of the world. Materialists say that the world is knowable. Idealists deny the knowability of the world; knowledge, in their opinion, is the introduction of a person to the world of “pure” ideas.

Consciousness is undoubtedly ideal, since it reflects the world around a person in subjective images, concepts, and ideas. Nevertheless, the ideal is a reflection of reality in the form of knowledge, emotions, and practical human activity. In addition, it cannot be denied that if we do not know about an object, this does not mean that it does not exist.

Consciousness – The human ability to reproduce reality in thinking; mental activity as a reflection of reality.

Consciousness and the world are two poles of the same thing, a single correlation of consciousness. That is why, in a strictly philosophical sense, it is incorrect to consider consciousness independently, in isolation from its correlative pole - being (the object of consciousness, the world), just as the object - in isolation from its correlative pole - consciousness. But consciousness is not only the ability of correlation, but also itself attitude. This is clear from the fact that we cannot be distracted from consciousness, “go beyond” its limits. In fact, we are totally engulfed in consciousness. If there is no consciousness, then there is nothing for us. In this sense, consciousness itself is a certain correlation, duality, separation within itself. Consciousness always manifests itself as a structure of consciousness about [something]. Moreover, philosophy tries to substantiate the conclusion that this nature of consciousness constitutes the very separation between subject and object.

As a relation, consciousness is a certain experience, a certain experience in which we relate to the world. This experience is understood simultaneously both as the activity of correlation as a whole and as the subject of this activity experiencing himself and his relationship to the world. That is why, sometimes in philosophy, the subject itself is “singled out” from consciousness, and “consciousness” in the narrow sense is understood as the relationship between the subject and its object. This is said to be that the subject (co)knows the object. At the same time, the term “consciousness” in philosophy is not used when talking about the movement “inside” thinking, and not about the actual correlation with the world.

This is due to the fact that outside the experience of correlation with the world, consciousness loses its independent meaning and becomes only the ability of reflection regarding the conceivable content. Within thinking, the subject of movement becomes not consciousness, but thinking itself, understood simultaneously both as some universal, impersonal space of activity and as the very subject of this activity. However, at the same time, consciousness is always present as a possible position into which the subject can move at any moment - as an experience of possible correlation with the world.

The following forms of consciousness are distinguished: self-consciousness as consciousness by consciousness of itself, reason as thinking consciousness, that is, comprehending the world in concepts (categories of reason), mind as self-conscious reason and spirit as the highest form of consciousness, which includes all other forms. The difference between reason and reason is that reason correlates its concepts with the world and therefore its criterion of truth is consistency. Reason, as a self-conscious intellect, rises to the dialectical retention of contradictions, since it correlates not only its concepts with the world, but also itself with its concepts.

Philosophy tries to answer two basic questions about consciousness: what is the nature of consciousness and how consciousness is related to physical reality, primarily the body.

Self-consciousness is the subject’s consciousness of himself in contrast to the other – other subjects and the world in general; This is a person’s consciousness of his interaction with the objective world and the subjective world (psyche), his vital needs, thoughts, feelings, motives, instincts, experiences, actions. Self-awareness is not an initial given inherent in a person, but a product of development.

In philosophy, self-consciousness is consciousness by consciousness of oneself, reflection of consciousness regarding oneself. Self-awareness is simultaneously understood both as an act (activity) of reflection by consciousness of oneself and as a result of this reflection - knowledge of oneself. Self-awareness is the condition that consciousness preserves itself in time - maintains itself as the same consciousness. At the same time, they talk about the unity of self-awareness. In turn, the unity of self-consciousness is the condition for any unity in the world (see Kant). In a strictly philosophical sense, consciousness always exists - it can neither begin nor stop, since in a strictly philosophical sense it is understood as the very condition for the constitution of the world, as the very way of being and givenness of the world. Accordingly, self-consciousness is understood as the unity of the subject underlying all consciousness.

Reason is a philosophical category that expresses the highest type of mental activity, the ability to think universally, the ability to analyze, abstract and generalize.

Reason is one of the forms of consciousness, a self-conscious mind, directed at itself and the conceptual content of its knowledge (Kant, Hegel). Reason expresses itself in principles, ideas and ideals. Reason must be distinguished from other forms of consciousness - contemplation, reason, self-consciousness and spirit. If reason as a thinking consciousness is aimed at the world and its main principle accepts the consistency of knowledge, equality with itself in thinking, then reason as reason, conscious of itself, correlates not only different contents with each other, but also itself with this content. Because of this, the mind can hold onto contradictions. Hegel believed that only reason finally achieves the true expression of truth as concrete, that is, including opposing characteristics in its unity.